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The latest Kodak DVD archival material which is supposed to have a life of 100 years. It is expensive though.............. I would be inclined to check other manufacturers for their archival material. Also, price getting another drive.

Yea, I have thought about that. But realistically, I'm thinking within the next 10 years give or take, I'll be able to copy these disks to a new medium, like blue ray or something not so volatile. Point being, I'm looking for something to last, but it doesn't have to last my entire life.

And yes, C:\Saw is correct, it is static data, so I'll only need to back it up once, and store it in a low humidity low light container I've yet to find.

The problem is, there doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence as to how long disks last (I know this also depends on the manufacturer).

Basically, if you store them right they should be good for the 10 years or so that you are envisaging. To be sure, just make another set after 5 years? Make sure that you use good quality media, and store them vertically in crystal cases. Do be careful what you write on them with

10 years is a long time in IT hardware and technology terms so I don't think that an additional harddrive is a particularly good solution. I had to "mothball" hardware for my project to make sure that the data would be accessible in 30 years' time.

If you cannot do someone any good: don't do them any harm....
As long as you did this to one of these, the least of my little ones............you did it unto Me.
What profiteth a man if he gains the entire World at the expense of his immortal soul?

actually hdd arnt that expensive either, and can hold alot more. especially considering the amount of dvds u might need. also considering the price of a good quality dvd. and even consider the steps needed to store and maintain them, a hdd may be a better choice in that aspect. i got a seagate free agent with 500 gigs for about 89 bucks on sale at bestbuy. it comes with its own backup software, only down fall is it doesnt back up program files only docs and media. just sits on my desk where i can keep an eye on it

i would definately check the pros and cons and compare the cost. in the long run itd also be alot easier to transfer them to some other form of removable media.

Last edited by chaosclown; November 4th, 2008 at 01:00 AM.
Reason: made a few changes

I actually own two cars, one with aux in, and the other with a tape player. I bought an adapter for the car with a tape player. Its a tape you put in, but it has a wire coming out with a headphone jack, so you can use an ipod or whatever you may want. Costs about 20 USD if I remember correctly.

To get back on topic:

I agree when you say that cheap ass Dvd's die in 6 months. My music Cd's which are handled everyday in the car get whacked in about 2 months, start jumping etc.

yes, but if you're using them like that, it really doesn't matter what brand you're using. So what I do is buy those stacks of 100 dvds for like 20 dollars, and I use those for every day use, when I don't care about how long they last. I've also bought Sony, which I assumed were better because they're a name brand and are also more expensive, but you never know. I haven't actually done any testing between the actual quality of the two brands I have.

Any decent DVD / CD brands you can recommend?

So, yea, that is a pretty good question, and I also would like to know the answer. haha.

And to answer your question nihil, I have about 500 gigs of data, give or take. But I'm not sure how much of it I'm going to be backing up. Probably most though.